Bohol digs paddles to stir

sleeping ‘dragonboating’

CORTES, Bohol, Jan 28 (PIA)—In a bid to reclaim and reassert its dominance in the water sports of dragon boating, local officials and civil society representatives dug in their paddles to create a stir that awakens the dragonboating for physical fitness and tourism here, in time for the Chinese New Year, January 22.

Led by Governor Erico Aristotle Aumentado, represented by provincial executive assistant Atty Antonio Amora Jr., private sector and Modala Resort Vice President for Operations Rommel Gonzales, Bohol Paddlers Association Incorporated president Dr. Theodore Dumaluan, former police general Arturo Evangelista and community leaders drew fire in the eyes of the sleeping dragon boat head, in simple ceremonies symbolic of awakening the dragon in the Chines New Year’s year of the water rabbit.

Dragon boating as a sport started in Bohol, shared Dr Dumalu-an who recalled that at those times, Bohol has hosted national and international races.

He said when a dragonboat team came in to introduce the sport, local enthusiasts insisted that they build their own boat so they can hold independent races without bothering their Manila trainors.

As the private sector during that time saw the potential for sports tourism, the Bohol Association of Hotels, Resorts and Restaurants decided to fund the building of one dragonboat, while the provincial government also paid for the building of two more dragon boats.

Those times, we transport our [dragon] boats to Cebu to organize their races, while we had regular domestic tune up races, the schools, local government units and large business establishments creating their paddling crew, Dumaluan, who is also an avid paddler added.

Gonzales, whose resort now has a veritable crew of paddlers, said he saw how dragonboat crew and their families can easily fill up hotel rooms during competitions, and did not think twice in lending his company’s support and resources to the water sport that can be made into his resort’s in-house water sport attraction.

Then however, Bohol still has limited rooms that holding events like dragonboating which entails a crew of at least 10 to 22, and their families, officials found it hard for a suitable billeting.

As Bohol’s dragonboating surged to its popularity, the pandemic hit Bohol and sports activities, especially dragonboating has to be regulated or stopped.

This then put the dragon boating plans in the back rooms.

Those times too, as most hotels and resorts closed to tourists, some investors in Bohol found it as the chance to retrofit, and build additional rooms to cater to the tourists during the reopening of the borders.

There are thousands of dragonboat teams out there, just waiting to be invited, Dr. Dumaluan pointed out. Now is the perfect time to reawaken the dragon and use it as a means to ferry Bohol to a faster economic recovery, while instilling physical fitness, mental health and team spirit among Boholanos, he said.

Bohol is hosting a national dragonboat races in July, the first of these races after the pandemic. Now that the lead paddlers are dipping their paddles into the goal, it now depends on the engine paddlers and the boosters to provide the thrust and the drummer to set the tempo for recovery. (RAHC/PIA_7/Bohol)

GETTING THE FIRE LIT. Dr Theodore Dumaluan, president of the Bohol Paddlers Association Incorporated along with police general Arturo Evangelista stir the dragonboat head by marking the fire in the dragon’s eyes as Bohol aspires to make dragonboating in Bohol in 2023 a tourism revenue grosser. (PIAbohol)

THE DRAGON AWAKES. After being dormant for two years due to the pandemic, Bohol is now ready to unleash its fiery tourism recovery program with the recent relaunching of its dragon boats for soirts tourism and general fitness to the Boholanos. (PIABohol)

Capitol price announcement

Triggers vendors to offer low

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, Jan 27 (PIA)—That week when Capitol promised to bring in good quality fish at P180 per kilo when the same fish displayed in the public markets ranged from P220 to P240, fish prices in the market suddenly sagged to P160.

Bohol Fish Buy-Back Coordinator Jerome Salvio Madanguit, speaking at the Kapihan sa PIA said they were first concerned about Capitols offer of P180, fish prices immediately took a dive.

A day before we launched the Fish Buy-Back Program, we announced that there is a load of fish coming, three kinds of fish, and Capitol is selling it at P180. At that day of the announcement, the same fish displayed in the market stalls were priced at P240, Madanguit recalled.

“On the day of the launch, monitors at the Office of the Provincial Agriculture told me that public markets are suddenly lowering their prices at P170 and P160 per kilo,” he narrated to the Kapihan radio listeners.

“So the governor was right, he was able to achieve the goal of bringing the price down by posing in the competition, and he also proved that the price could be much lower, if there were no greedy people controlling the price” the Fish Buy Back Coordinator pointed out.

When the Fish Buy-Back Program forced market vendors to bring down their offer, even much lower than the Capitol’s offer, then the program worked, Madanguit triumphantly declared hinting temporary victory.

Every time we have a fish delivery which we sell at the Old Tagbilaran City Airport at a lower price, the market scene would also go much down. When all our fish are sold-out, the vendors go back to their bloated pricing, he announced.

This came after years upon years of local officials and many disagreeing to the allegations that there is a cartel controlling the fish price here.

The fact that, possibly in order to kill the Capitol competition, some sellers could bring the price lower than the Capitol price, negates these denials, observers of the program also shared their discoveries.

The aim of lowering the fish price and making it justly affordable to Boholanos however is a very complicated issue, Madanguit admitted.

He said Bohol only produces P42% of its fish requirement, highlighting the massive gap between supply and the huge demand, which by economics, drives the prices up.

With this issue at hand, we have to import fish, especially when the 16 fishermen’s organization have not yet been able to fully operate according to the Memorandum of Agreement, Madanguit volunteered the information.

Last November, Bohol Provincial Government represented by Governor Erico Aristotle Aumentado signed with the 17 fishermen’s organization and market vendors along with concerned national government agencies, the fish buyback program.

Here, the 16 fishermen’s organizations commit to sell at least P50% of their catch to the provincial government through the fish consolidators in their towns.

But these 16 organizations are currently arranging with the LandBank of the Philippines for the provision of materials and implements to increase their catch.

Practically, we have not fully made the program run with still a few details to fix, Madanguit admits too.

By the MOA, fishermen agree to the provision that they could not receive hard cash for their fish, but the payment would be sent through the group’s GCash account.

This however proved tedious, knowing that there are few if any, of the gcash cash-out stations in their barangays, defeating the purpose of making sure fishermen have money for their daily needs.

In the meantime while the government is still ironing out the issues, a group of people under a non-government organization is partnering with the Buy-Back Program by providing the seed money so that fishermen could get their money right there and then.

This, Madanguit hopes would improve the Buy-back system and gradually bring the fish price down sustainably, by addressing the different aspects of fish value chain.(RAHC/PIA_7/Bohol)

IT WORKS. Bohol Fish Buy-Back Program was able to bring down the fish prices to affordable levels the moment we release fish in the market, said Jerome Salvio Madanguit, who pointed out that despite high prices in the markets, as soon as the Capitola announces its price, the markets would be flooded with cheap fish. (RAHC/PIA-7/Bohol)